Hagar and Sarah

Portion To Read : Gal 4

Galatians 4:21-31 - Hagar and Sarah

Ref: Genesis 15:17-16:10, Genesis 21:1-13, and Galatians 4:21-31.

In this part of Galatians, Paul uses the story of Hagar and Sarah as a picture of the relationship between God and man. The Jews traced their lineage through Abraham’s legitimate son, Isaac, the son of Sarah, and regarded Ishmael, the son of Hagar, as an outcast. Here, Paul tells them that Hagar represents the covenant given on Mt. Sinai, which is the law that the Jews in Jerusalem pride themselves on keeping. He goes on to quote from Genesis—“the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son”—and encourages the Galatians to claim the promise made to their ancestor, Isaac, by shaking off the bonds of slavery imposed by the law.

1. What makes this such a powerful message for the Galatians? How do you think this message made them feel?

The story of Hagar and Sarah is symbolic and has a deeper meaning than first appears. The two women represent two covenants: Hagar the covenant of the law and Sarah the covenant of grace. The covenant of the law given at Mt Sinai produced slavery; thus Hagar, a slave girl, fitted that covenant. Hagar represents Jerusalem (vs 25), the center for unsaved Israelites who were still seeking to obtain righteousness by keeping the law. For Paul to link unbelieving Israelites with Hagar rather than with Sarah was a stinging characterization. True believers are born of God and faith in Jesus (vs 28) but they will often be persecuted and mocked by those born of the flesh, just as Ishmael mocked Isaac (vs 29). Paul goes on to encourage the Galatians to listen to the verdict of scripture (vs 30) that it is impossible to inherit God's blessings on the basis of human merit or effort; furthermore, those who trust in Christ have no connection with the law as a means of obtaining divine favor. They (and we) are the children of Sarah, the free woman.

Activity For The Day - Hide And Seek

Self-Examination

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?; unless indeed you are disqualified. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

a. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Paul asks the Corinthian Christians to consider a sobering question: “Am I really a Christian?”

i. We are rightly concerned that every believer have the assurance of salvation, and know how to endure the attacks that come from Satan in this area. At the same time, we also understand that there are some who assume or presume them are Christians when they are not. It is a challenge to all: Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
ii. We are often very ready to examine and test others. But first, and always first, we must examine and test ourselves. “That was the trouble at Corinth. They criticized Paul and failed to examine themselves.” (Redpath)

iii. “To examine yourself, in fact, is to submit to the examination and scrutiny of Jesus Christ the Lord – and this never to fix attention on sin but on Christ – and to ask Him to reveal that in you which grieves His Spirit; to ask Him to give you grace that it might be put away and cleansed in His precious blood.” Self examination “takes the chill away from your soul, it takes the hardness away from your heart, it takes the shadows away from your life, it sets the prisoner free.” (Redpath)

iv. “Now, ‘prove yourselves.’ Do not merely sit in your closet and look at yourselves alone, but go out into this busy world and see what kind of piety you have. Remember, many a man’s religion will stand examination that will not stand proof. We may sit at home and look at our religion, and say, ‘Well, I think this will do!’” (Spurgeon)

v. Unless indeed you are disqualified: Paul knew there were some among the Corinthian Christians who were disqualified for eternal life and salvation. Their thinking was worldly because they were of the world, not of the Lord. This is a hard truth to confront, but it is better to know now than when it is too late! The word for disqualified is simply the negative of the word for test in this same passage. If we don’t examine ourselves and test ourselves now, we may find that we ultimately don’t pass the test and are disqualified.

b. What are to look for when we examine and test ourselves? We are to see that Jesus Christ is in you. We are not to look for perfection, in ourselves or in others; but we should see real evidence of Jesus Christ in us.

i. “Now, what is it to have Jesus Christ in you? The Roman Catholic hangs the cross on his bosom; true Christian carries the cross in his heart; and a cross inside the heart, my friends, is one of the sweetest cures for a cross on the back. If you have a cross in your heart - Christ crucified in you, the hope of glory - all the cross of this world’s troubles will seem to you light enough, and you will easily be able to sustain it. Christ in the heart means Christ believed in, Christ beloved, Christ trusted, Christ espoused, Christ communed with, Christ as our daily food, and ourselves as the temple and palace wherein Jesus Christ daily walks.” (Spurgeon)

This beautiful interpretation of this verse was taken from Enduring word.

Activity For The Day - Find and Answer

Sufficient Grace

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12: 9)

a. And He said to me: God had a response for Paul. The answer was not what Paul was initially hoping for, or expecting. But God still had a response for Paul. We often close our ears to God if He responds in a way we were not hoping for, or expecting.

b. My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness: Instead of removing the thorn from Paul’s life, God had given, and would give, His grace to Paul. The grace God gave Paul was sufficient to meet his every need.

i. Paul was desperate in his desire to be relieved of this burden. But there are two ways of taking away a burden. It can be done by removing the load, or it can be done by strengthening the shoulder bearing the load. Instead of taking away the thorn, God would strengthen Paul under it, and God would show His strength through Paul’s apparent weakness.

ii. To do this, Paul had to believe that God’s grace is sufficient. We really don’t believe God’s grace is sufficient until we believe we ourselves are insufficient. For many of us, especially in American culture, this is a huge obstacle. We are the people who idolize the “self-made man” and want to rely on ourselves. But we can’t receive God’s strength until we know our weakness. We can’t receive the sufficiency of God’s grace until we know our own insufficiency.

c. How did God’s grace make the difference? How did it meet Paul’s need at this point?

i. Grace could meet Paul’s need because it expresses God’s acceptance and pleasure in us. When we receive His grace, we enjoy our status of favor and approval in God’s eyes. Grace means that God likes us, that He is favorably disposed towards us; we have His approval and promise of care.

ii. Grace could meet Paul’s need because it was available all the time. When we sin or fail, it does not put us outside of the reach of God’s grace. Since grace is given freely to us in Jesus, it can’t be taken at later because we stumble or fall. When we come to God by faith, through the blood of Jesus, His grace is ever ready to meet and minister to our insufficiencies.

iii. Grace could meet Paul’s need because it was the very strength of God. So much of the power of this world is expressed in things that can only bring harm and destruction. But God loves to show His power through His goodness and grace. Sometimes we associate goodness with cowardice or timidity. But when we do, we take a worldly perspective about power and strength, and we deny God’s truth about the strength of grace and love. Grace is not weak or wimpy. Instead, it is the power of God to fulfill what we lack.

Activity For Today: Bible Quiz

Source : enduringword

Stumbling Blocks ?

"Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God" (1 Cor 10:32)

a. Do all to the glory of God: The purpose of our lives isn’t to see how much we can get away with and still be Christians; rather, it is to glorify God. If the Corinthian Christian would have kept this principle in mind from the beginning in this issue, how much easier it would have made everything!

b. Give no offense: An offense is an occasion to stumble, of leading someone else into sin. Paul is saying none of our behavior should encourage another to sin.

i. Paul is not talking about offending the legalism of others, something he was not shy about doing (Galatians 5:11-12).

c. Paul’s desire regarding men was that they may be saved; more often than we think, low conduct in Christian living is connected to little regard for the lost. Paul’s concern was not seeking [his] own profit, but that all may be saved.

Not everyone struggles with the same problems or situations as someone else. We are all weak in different areas, and we don’t want to put a stumbling block in the way of another person who may be weak in an area we are not.

1 Cor 10:23-24 "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being."

1 Cor 10:32-33 "Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God, even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved."

2 Cor 6:3 "We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited."

Activity For The Day - WORD SEARCH

Boasting In Christ

I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. (2 Corinthians 11:16-20)

Verses 16-20 of this chapter has Paul boasting about his sufferings. He is not boasting as the world boast about wealth, power, and prestige but rather about his hardships. Even though in these verses Paul seems to contradict the word of God by boasting, it is clearly seen that it is something different. He says in verse 30 " If i must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness". This is what we all need to learn in our lives. If there is anything that we should boast about, it is about how God has made his strength perfect in our weaknesses. Its not about what we have done with our human abilities, which isn't much, but rather what God has done for us and through us. The point that Paul was trying to get across is that we are nothing with out God's grace and every praise belongs to him. He is worthy of everything. We need to learn to discipline our minds and pride and submit it all to God.

By Sam Kurien

Activity For The Day - Decode The Message

Repentance

The word for “repent” in Hebrew (used in the Old Testament) means “to turn around’. The word for ‘repent’ in the New Testament Greek means ‘to change one’s mind.’

Like most people, you may have thought to yourself “I know better than the Bible how I ought to conduct myself.” You followed ‘your own lights.” Then you crashed on the rocks from which God tried to warn you away.

“A dead end street is a good place to trun around.” – Naomi Judd

Amazingly, many of us blame God for letting this happen to us! Other times we may feel sorry for ourselves and give up. The apostle Paul says that there is a godly kind of sorrow. “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings to death. – 2 Corinthians 7:10

Sorrow that does not lead to change is just a means of trying to wheedle our way out of the consequences of our actions. If we regret our actions, we change them in future. (The Juice of Life by Tom Long)

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to trust in the Savior. This "salvation" which Paul speaks of in our text, is not a theological term, it is no intellectual matter. It is found in the man who is called Jesus. That was the name God gave to him because it means, "Salvation is of the Lord." Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost. He saved by his righteous life and by his atoning death as the Lamb of God. He has taken away the sin of the world. That means when I have entrusted myself to him, my sins are as though they never were. What a magnificent and even incredible concept that is.

"Died he for me, who caused his pain?
For me who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou my God shouldst die for me?

Activity For The Day - CrossWord Puzzle

Earthen Vessels

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

a. This treasure: The treasure is the greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the glory of God made evident through that gospel. It is the very light of God, and the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, reflected in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the greatest treasure in all of creation!

b. We have this treasure in earthen vessels: When Paul considers us as earthen vessels, he isn’t disparaging the body or considering it merely a receptacle for the soul. Instead, Paul is simply comparing the “value” of God’s light and glory and the “value” what He has chosen to put His light and glory into. When you compare the two, it isn’t hard to be amazed that God has put such a great treasure into clay pots!

i. Who is worthy to be a “container” for God’s light and glory? The smartest person isn’t smart enough, the purest person isn’t pure enough, the most spiritual person isn’t spiritual enough, and most talented person isn’t talented enough. We are all just clay pots holding an unspeakably great treasure!

ii. Earthen vessels: Earthenware vessels were common in every home in the ancient world. They were not very durable (compared to metal), and they were useless if broken (glass could be melted down again). “They were thus cheap and of little intrinsic value.” (Kruse) God chose to put His light and glory in the everyday dishes, not in the fine china!

iii. We almost always are drawn to the thing that has the best packaging. But the best gifts often have the most unlikely packaging. God did not see a need to “package” Jesus when He came as a man to this earth. Jesus was not embarrassed to live as an earthen vessel. God is not embarrassed to use clay pots like us!

c. That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us: Why does God put such a great treasure in such weak vessels? So that the greatness of the power may be of God and not of us. So that it would be evident to anyone who had eyes to see that the work was being done by the power of God, not the power of the vessel.

i. Why did God choose risky, earthen vessels instead of safe, heavenly ones? Because “perfect” vessels are safe, but bring glory to themselves. Earthen vessels are risky, but can bring profound glory to God.

ii. In the story of Gideon, it was the breaking of vessels that made the light shine forth and bring victory to God’s people (Judges 7:20). In the rest of the chapter, Paul will show how God “breaks” His clay pots so the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

Activity For The Day - FIND ME